Hannah's HON 255 Blog

      For our final project, we decided to watch the Maze Runner. The movie takes place in the indefinite future of  Earth, where the world has been completely scorched by the sun and because of the new environment a deadly virus has formed and killed billions of people. This could be a direct reflection of our future if climate change continues to destroy the planet. In The Maze Runner a new generation of teenagers who have immunity to the virus are forcefully put into a maze where they are tested physically and mentally to see if they can survive the harsh conditions of the new world they live in. Advanced technology is used to wipe their memories, in order to give them all an equal chance at survival and making them more susceptible to being put throughout these tests. A new Glader put into the maze named Thomas pushes the limits of the teenagers and tests the maze unlike anyone else has before. They learn the patterns of the maze and defeat the Grievers...

 Our inspiration for our fashion show was the character Ruby Rhod from The Fifth Element. Ruby Rhod was an influential character in the film and in society. He is one of the first gender fluid characters introduced in film, and introduced queer characters into the world of film. He wears inherently feminine clothes, but is portrayed as a heterosexual male. I think having a gender fluid character in the film is so important in representing all kinds of people in the film industry, and crossing gender barriers in the fashion world is the future of fashion. We all believe that fashion is slowly making its way to being genderless. Why would we subject a piece of clothing to one gender? Why do we try to confine people using fashion, when fashion was originally intended for expression? We wanted to create three genderless looks to represent the future of the fashion industry and to show people that you don't have to only shop in the clothing section assigned to the gender you identify wi...

      When we were deciding on what video game to play in order to interview a random avatar, we had no idea what to do. None of us play video games at all, and were unsure of what games were even available to chat on. I remembered all of the games I used to play as a kid, and ones I revisited recently due to the boredom of lockdown, so we decided to play Movie Star Planet. The game is about completing several tasks that continually boost your fame and popularity within the game. Although the game has fun mini games you can play, you can also chat with everyone playing on the same server as you. We were the most interested to see if we would be able to tell if we were communicating with a kid playing the game now, or if someone our age was playing for the nostalgia since this game is not relevant to kids today. I think either perspective would have been really interesting to consider. I think it would be super cool to hear about the inner motivations o...

      Researching how much of an influence the Star Trek franchise has had on developing things today honestly blew my mind. It is so crazy to see TV and film predict the future of technology and the future of society just by using their imagination. We noted that Star Trek has several technology devices that are used quite often today, including facial and voice recognition, holograms, tablets, video chat, earpiece communicators, and communicators that flip open. It also included futuristic technology such as ray guns, time travel, and energy "beaming" teleportation.      Each of us made connections to our majors and the Star Trek franchise, and I honestly thought I wouldn't;t notice anything being a marine science major. It was difficult comparing technology used in space to technology that is used underwater, but I noticed that the spaceships in Star Trek had infrared cameras in order to detect anything in the ships surroundings....

      When we originally met to discuss our movie, we knew we wanted to incorporate future technology that could be developed within our fields, but also a scenario that may be relevant in the future to our fields. As a marine science major, it was difficult to come up with a believable environmental issue only because we are witnessing the destruction of our oceans and environment in our everyday lives. We decided to make a dooms day-esque movie that takes place in the year 2072. My character finds a lethal bacteria contaminating our water sources, and I and infected with the bacteria. I use advanced technology to scan the water and instantly know information such as the pH, bacterial components, salinity, and toxicity using a tricorder. The bacterial infection causes a rash, fever, and severe psychosis. Jenna, a nursing major, uses a medical tricorder to perform a body scan that records my medical history, symptoms, and other related information. Jen...

      The Fifth Element was such an interesting film. When we watched the beginning in class, I was pretty confused on what was going on, but the pace of the movie keeps the audience excited to learn more about the fifth element and how it will save humanity throughout the movie. The costumes and the sets throughout the movie were extraordinary, and unlike anything I have ever seen. Korben's futuristic apartment was so cool to analyze and see their vision of what living looks like in the 23rd century. The flying cars, highly advanced weapons, humans colonizing outer space, and everyday technology was very unique and a cool way to imagine our future.      I think Leloo's character is incredibly interesting, but the most important part about her is what she  represents. She is made to be a perfect human with the capabilities of saving the human race from evil. Although she is seemingly perfect, it is revealed that Leloo is not as strong as everyone ...

      My favorite designer is Carolina Kleinman because she strives to make sustainable clothing, ethically creating her clothing, and using artisan work from several different cultures to capture the beauty of these cultures. Kleinman's father worked with artisans in Bolivia in the textile and design industry, so Carolina had a passion and knowledge for the work at a young age. She travelled the world with her husband and children, when they decided to settle in Mexico. Carolina developed amazing relationships with artisans from La Paz, Bolivia, Cusco, and Peru, and used their traditional work as inspiration for her brand. Not only is she preserving history and culture in her designs, but she also is committed to making sustainable clothing. She has launched a "Zero Waste  Initiative," which ensures that every inch of fabric is used while making her designs. Natural and recycled fabrics are mainly utilized in her designs. She is also fully committed t...

      I LOVE this movie so much!!! The cast does such an amazing job conveying the story to the audience and the plot sheds light to a problem that the human race will have to face one day. The cinematography and CGI elements of the film were incredible, and make the audience feel like they were in space with the crew. The star studded cast also did a  phenomenal job pulling the audience in, and keeping our attention throughout the movie. Matthew McConaughey is one of my favorite actors, and I think he does an amazing job showing all of the emotions that come with leaving behind your family for several years in order to save the human race. I also loved watching him and his approach in this movie because it is very different from his movies that I am more familiar with.      The blackhole scene is by far my favorite scene of the film and bends the minds of every person who watches the film. Connecting the fact that Cooper was Murph's "ghost" ...

     I really enjoyed watching "Ready Player One," and I remember seeing commercials a few years ago when the movie originally came out. The animation in this movie was unlike anything I've ever seen. The avatars looked so real, and The Oasis was so detailed. I would love to know more about the animation style and how they made these characters and different worlds so incredibly detailed. The main thing I loved about the movie was the soundtrack!!! I love how the movie was set in the future, but they used so many classic songs. It made the action scenes much more entertaining, and hooked me from the beginning of the movie!     It was crazy seeing how VR had essentially taken over the world. Considering our environmental situation and how technology is taking over society, this could be a reality for humans in the future. One thing that did not sit right with me was that humans just turned a blind eye to how they were the reason the planet was essentially de...

     "Ghost in the Shell" was definitely the most confusing movie to follow for me out of all of the movies we watched, but it interested me more after gaining some clarity. I had to do a little research about the major themes of the movie in order to better understand and analyze the movie, and the most interesting point i read about is how the movie explores the idea of humanity. When you live in a world where most are part human and part cyborg, where is the line drawn where you aren't considered human anymore? We see an identity crisis through Motoko's character; she doesn't feel entirely robotic, but she doesn't relate to other humans. A quote that resonated with me was, "T here are countless ingredients that make up the human body and mind, like all the components that make up me as an individual with my own personality. Sure, I have a face and voice to distinguish myself from others, but my thoughts and memories are unique only to me, and I carr...

      I have enjoyed watching the Star  Trek series' in class over the past two weeks! The main thing that stuck out to me in Star Trek: Discovery was that they included women as captain and commanders! This representation is so important in film and TV, and I really admire how they portrayed these important crew members as women of color. Both Captain Georgious and Commander Michael are portrayed a strong, smart, and powerful women who are fully capable of leading the U.S.S. Enterprise. Michael is part human and part Vulcan, so she always provides the most logical point of view, but her human emotions tend to get in the way of her rational thinking sometimes. Michael has a personal vendetta against Klingons because they killed her parents. When she sees the Klingons, she has more of an emotional response than a logical response which goes against her Vulcan nature. The entire episode is about Michael overcoming her emotions in order to work more efficiently as a cap...

    Watching the very first episode of the series Star Trek  was incredibly interesting! I love watching older television and film because of the simplicity of it. It isn't overloaded with special effects or CGI, and I feel that it's much more organic. Although the ship in this episode is much less advance as the Enterprise depicted in the movie, they were still very similar and I liked seeing how the film kept many ideas the same as the original series. The spaceships both had central captains chairs which highlighted the captains power, they both had the "beaming" teleportation technology, ray guns, and they were wearing the same iconic outfits. It was very interesting seeing the characters have to play their own main characters, and their characters disguised as Ms. Crater. It showed different sides to each of the actors and it made the episode much more engaging. The sets on the different planet and in the ship were incredibly detailed and were super interesting t...

    I thought Star Trek was a really enjoyable movie. I liked the humor, the action, the awesome sets, and the cast. I thought the technology displayed throughout the movie was really cool, and was depicted well. Almost everything in these massive spaceships had facial and voice recognition to allow crew members into specific areas throughout the ship. The most interesting form of technology was the "beaming" form of teleportation that was used throughout the movie. The characters would stand on top of a portal and "energize" themselves to another location outside of the ship. When Spock beams to the Vulcan planet to save his planet, beaming was the only way he could have gotten to his family in time before their planet was sucked into black hole. Without the beaming technology, Spock would have lost his entire family. Also when James Kirk and Sulu have to deactivate the device that was drilling a hole into the core of the Vulcan planet, they would have fallen ...

      I would personally take the red pill because I am the kind of person who pushes for change and wants to help other people. I fully recognize that taking the red pill and discovering that your body is being used as a battery to power artificial  intelligence and seeing the human world completely destroyed is a very traumatic experience, like the blue pill argued in class. I know some people would not be able to take it and are not prepared to see the truth, but is anyone ever truly ready to know a dark truth? Many of us experience traumatic experiences throughout are lives, and no one is ever prepared for trauma. When my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, I was not prepared to receive that information whatsoever. Although that was an extremely traumatic experience, I would not have been able to provide the support and care for my mom if I wasn't informed on the severity of her illness. Taking the red pill or blue pill opens up the possibility of trauma, but a...

      Our idea was to create a collage with layers separating and classifying characters into specific groups in order to put the characters in certain perspectives to reveal certain themes throughout the film. We put Tyrell in the center because he is the creator of the replicants and the creator of this battle between humans and replicants. He is the pupil because we view him as the source of the central conflict of the film. We surrounded Tyrell with the replicants because he is their "father" and we shaded them in red. The red iris represents how the replicants eyes would glow red throughout the movie, and we also shaded the replicants red to represent the evil the replicants are capable of. They became violent beings because they were forced to live in the human world restricted and with an expiration date. They are very capable of evil, and show this while being hunted by Deckard. We placed blade runners, police officers, and Rachel on the outside bec...

      I really enjoyed watching the Matrix, I have never seen anything similar to the concepts and the cinematography presented in this movie. I had so many questions about what was truly going on in the movie and as the plot unfolded I could have never guessed what was truly going on with The Matrix. Overall I think this is a very interesting story that takes a new form of movie exhibiting artificial intelligence taking over the human world as we know it.     The concept of humans creating artificial intelligence which end up being their demise is perfectly ironic to me. I believe that the end of the human race will be self-inflicted because humans will always believe that they are  superior. This motivates humans to do incredibly stupid things, like continually damaging and putting hard things into the environment. It is terrifying to think about how much potential power humans granted artificial intelligence because now they have humans in a complet...

      It was very interesting reading the original story of Pinocchio and seeing how different it is from the classic Disney film I watched when I was a kid. I also didn't know much about the story of Pinocchio at all  and I was pleasantly surprised by the very eventful story of Pinocchio questioning his existence as a marionette and becoming a real boy by maturing and learning several lesson while making countless mistakes.      The Adventures of Pinocchio  essentially is a story warning kids about not listening to their elders. Pinocchio get robbed, almost killed multiple times, and lost throughout the story because he always ends up not listening to what his father or the maiden with Azul hair tells him and instead acts on his own selfish agenda. The story reveals to readers how children do not know what is best for them and have a tendency to choose light hearted things over the correct choice in many scenarios.      I...

       Artificial Intelligence was not one of my favorite movies that we have watched this semester, the movie moved very slowly and David's story was extremely sad. The movie is focused around David, a robot child that can be programmed to love, devoting his life to becoming human so his mother will truly love him and allow him to live with her again. I noted how it seemed very bizarre that David desired to be a human so badly when humans had mistreated him his entire life. He is mistreated by his brother and manipulated to do bad things by him, he is made a spectacle of by his peers, is almost tortured and killed by strangers, and is disappointed by his own creator telling him he isn't unique. After a life of being exposed to the human potential of being evil, why would David still want to become a real boy? This is why I found the movie incredibly sad. David maintains this child-like innocence that makes him almost blind to the fact that being human poses more pro...

      I thoroughly enjoyed watching Blade Runner, and I thought it was really interesting how the movie revolved so much around the significance and symbolism of one's eyes. The opening scene depicts an eyeball with a reflection of a city on fire. I think that focussing on an eye in the opening scene introduces the importance of eyes throughout the film and alerts the audience to pay close attention to eyes throughout the movie. I interpreted the burning city in the reflection as a "look" into the future of the city. The city is already shown as dark and majorly polluted, if the industrialization of the city and robots were to continue then life as the characters knew it would change right before their eyes. This stresses the importance of stopping the Replicants from inhabiting Earth and that danger is on the horizon. This scene opens up the use of symbolism through the eyes that is utilized throughout the movie to represent identity, perception, and is the main fac...

      2001: A Space Odyssey illustrates the evolution of mankind using the monolith as the catalyst of progression. In the beginning of the film, apes are living amongst other animals near a watering hole. One day, they wake up to a black monolith and they all gathered around and touched it. Shortly after, the apes gained the intelligence to start using bones as tools and weapons. Interacting with the monolith helped the apes progress as a society, thus beginning the advancement of the human race and human intelligence. Although this evolution is seemingly good and helps progress the society, Kubrick also highlights the violence that the apes are capable of and how the apes began hurting each other after they started using animal bones in their lives. I noted this as some sort of warning that Kubrick was trying to relay that violence is human nature and the advancement of technology can bring that violence out in people.   ...